Gendering Hong Kong

1. Feminisms
1.1. What is Feminism（女性主義）?
It is a body of theories and political movement based on women's experience. It focuses on analyzing gender inequality and promotion of women's rights, interests and issues.

1.2. Feminism and cultural theory
It focuses on the representations of women and gender relationship（性別關係）.

1.3. Gender/ Sex（社會性別／性別）
Gender is the perceived and conceived masculinity or femininity of a person. It refers to a lot of characteristics including appearance, speech, movement, etc.
Sex is the physical characteristics for differentiating female from male.

1.4. Symbolic annihilation（符號滅絕）
1.4.1. The presence and voice of women are reduced to minimum or eliminated.
1.4.2. Examples: Kung Fu Hustle（《功夫》）, Infernal Affairs（《無間道》）, ... ...

1.5. Gender stereotype（性別核板印象）
1.5.1. In the patriarchal society, gender stereotypes are constructed according to gender inequalities.
1.5.2. Women are often subordinated to male protagonists in movies.
Example: James Bond series
1.5.3. More examples:
Men: worker: active: public: productive
Women: housewife: passive: private: nurturing

2. Laura Mulvey: male gaze
2.1. "VISUAL PLEASURE AND NARRATIVE CINEMA": A cultural-psychoanalytical approach

2.2. Film is a cultural form always perpetuated by men's desire, the unconscious of patriarchal society.

2.3. Cinema as voyeurism (偷窺癖) for men: satisfying men's desire and fantasy

2.4. Women as a sexual object to be looked at and desired by men.

2.5. Men as a subject of desire

2.6. An example: The World of Suzie World

2.7. How to write "her-stories":
-How to symbolically empower women to become the subjects in popular culture?
-How to generate a cultural form (e.g. narrative) from a feminist point of view (or as an expression of women's desire)?

3. "Super-woman": the image of women in the 1960s
3.1. Highly talented, independent, and intelligent women
3.2. Dutiful daughter
3.3. Pursuing romantic relationship with a good looking man
Example: The Princess of Movie Fans (影迷公主)


3. Women as a subordinated role in Hong Kong films since the late 1980s
3.1. Women's independence is not seen in mainstream movies before the late 1990s
Example: The series of The Romancing Stars（《精裝追女仔》）
3.2. Women were portrayed as a desired object ("beautiful vase"漂亮花瓶)
3.3. The leading role of women only existed in less or non-mainstream movies

3.4. Example: Summer Snow（女人四十 1994）
3.4.1. A story about a woman trapped in the patriarchal order
3.4.2. Anne Hui（許鞍華）: a woman director
Reference: Freda Freiberg. "Border crossings: Ann Hui's cinema"
3.4.3. A story of an ordinary but "over-loaded" housewife.
3.4.4. She suffers from her job, her family, her father-in-law dominated by (weak) men.
3.4.5. The only way to escape from these burdens is "miracles" or illusion ("summer snow" and "pigeon")
3.4.6. The real life for a Hong Kong woman and the patriarchal institutions (family and workplace).

3.5. More examples:
《客途秋恨》（Song of Exile, 1990）: An autobiography of a Hong Kong woman (Maggie Cheung 張曼玉) and her "roots"
《千言萬語》（Ordinary Heroes, 1999）: A story about a female activist (Rachel Lee 李麗珍) in the 1970s

4. Hong Kong identity and women since the late 1990s

4.1. Golden chicken(金雞): a "superwoman" struggling for independence in the colonial period
4.1.1. A woman dependent on men-->An independent sex worker
4.1.2. An independent prostitute becomes a metaphor of Hong Kong
4.1.3. From the viewpoint of this prostitute, the men's world is in decline and they need help (the character of "姚仁邦").
4.1.4. In part II, the desire of "Golden Chicken" is represented as longing for a man.

4.2. The mood for love（花樣年華）: an metaphor for a place, a time, and a memory
4.2.1. The narrator is the male protagonist, Chow Mou Wan/Tony Leung (周慕雲/梁朝偉) .
4.2.2. So Lai Wah/Maggie Cheung (蘇麗華／張曼玉): Her subtleness and oriental outlook are highlighted and gazed upon by audience (Disc 13:36; 21:09).

4.3. Hollywood Hong Kong (香港有個荷里活): A woman as a desirable object and a femme fatale(禍水紅顏)
4.3.1. Hong Kong is represented as a group of frustrated and "castrated" men
4.3.2. In the film they all felt fascinated by a mystified prostitute (東東／周迅) from mainland China
4.3.3. The men never got the woman.
4.3.3. The Woman are cast out of local imagination

5. Patriarchal narrative and Hong Kong
5.1. Despite more women stories, female desire and autonomy are often incorporated into the narrative structure of patriarchy (父權制度的敘事結構).
5.2. The past of Hong Kong is sometimes represented as a beautiful woman but women remained as a nostalgic object.
5.3. Women often remain a desired object(慾望對象) in Hong Kong narratives

Next week
《猛龍過江》、《警察故事》